Microcontrollers function to replace mechanical and electromechanical components in a variety of applications and devices. Since they were first introduced approximately 30 years ago, microcontrollers have evolved to the point where they can be used for increasingly complex applications. Some microcontrollers in use today are also programmable, expanding the number of applications in which they can be used.
However, even though there are a large number of different types of microcontrollers available on the market with a seemingly wide range of applicability, it is still often difficult for a designer to find a microcontroller that is particularly suited for a particular application. Unique aspects of the intended application may make it difficult to find an optimum microcontroller, perhaps necessitating a compromise between the convenience of using an existing microcontroller design and less than optimum performance.
In those cases in which a suitable microcontroller is found, subsequent changes to the application and new requirements placed on the application will likely affect the choice of microcontroller. The designer thus again faces the challenge of finding a suitable microcontroller for the intended application.
Currently, design tools are available for designing, configuring and programming microcontrollers or other programmable electronic devices for providing a desirable microcontroller. Conventional design tools often provide for including a number of selectable microprocessor peripherals in the programmable device. In order to design the peripheral component to provide optimal performance, parameters of the peripheral component are adjusted accordingly. The conventional tools typically require a user to open up a separate application for determining the optimized parameters of selected peripherals. Typically, the separate application must be accessed through the operating system of the computer system, and cannot be accessed directly from the microcontroller design tool.
Upon completion of parameterizing a user module, the parameterized data is entered into the microcontroller design tool. Currently, the parameterized data must be entered into the microcontroller design tool manually. Unfortunately, many peripherals have complex design techniques, and there are a large number of parameters that must be set. Each parameter may be several digits in length, and may comprise a decimal point and/or may be positive or negative in value. Entering the parameters into the design tool can be very time-consuming, cumbersome and error prone. For example, if a decimal is misplaced, or a value is placed in the wrong parameter field, the peripheral component may not function properly. Since many programmable microcontrollers comprise a number of complex peripheral components, the functionality of the microcontroller may be compromised due to transcription errors.